Tribe Wednesday: Indians beat Chicago 7-2 at home finale

Cleveland Indians fans cheer after the Indians defeated the Chicago White Sox 7-2 in a baseball game on Wednesday in Cleveland. (AP PHOTO)

CLEVELAND — If you keep winning, apparently they will come.

Indians fans have failed to support their team at the turnstiles for much of the season, but with the Tribe in the thick of the American League wild card race, they’ve slowly but surely begun flocking to Progressive Field.

After beginning the last homestand with sparse crowds, attendance has risen steadily, culminating with 30,942 fans showing up for the final home game of the regular season Wednesday night.

It was the largest crowd at Progressive Field since Aug. 10 and accounted for just the fifth time since the home opener (Cleveland’s only sellout) that the Indians have drawn more than 30,000 fans. The team had a walk-up crowd of 5,181 fans, the third largest of the year.

Tribe Nation was rewarded with a 7-2 victory — the Indians’ sixth straight win — over the Chicago White Sox in a game that had a playoff feel.

“It was really kind of electric and that’s pretty cool,” Francona said. “Hopefully we’ll play more games here. I think they showed their appreciation of our team’s effort. They seemed very excited and it’s a lot of fun when it’s like that here.”

Fans are starting to take notice and they might have another chance to fill the park should the Indians host their first playoff game since 2007.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Fan him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter at @CAwesomeheimer.page1.